


Come Back

by Frost115



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 08:16:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5998456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frost115/pseuds/Frost115
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Discord had it all. He had friends, freedom, happiness, lovem and so much more. He finally knew what it was like to enjoy himself without causing pain to others. He finally understood the magic of Friendship. But it didn't last. Discord is turned back to stone by his friends, including Fluttershy. When he escapes, will he return to friendship or will he seek out revenge? (Eventual Fluttercord)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**(Timeline is BEFORE Tirek, just thought I’d mention that)**

**Prologue**

 It was quiet tonight in the Canterlot Gardens. Even though the night usual had the quiet steps of night guards or the silent rustling of the trees, none of that applied this day. The guards were said to ignore the garden. She sound very serious with her tone after they hauled in the new statue as if she was afraid of anypony seeing it. She said she would assign guards to watch it the next day and no sooner.

 The guards were slightly worried for the tone the usually calm Princess took but also felt lucky that they didn’t need to be in the gardens on this night. The wind felt very cold and the sky didn’t have any stars as if Luna herself was feeling the effects of earlier that day.

 The new statue served as a reminder, a harsh reminder, of what was and what could’ve been. The statue told a story that would possibly be remembered for another hundred years. It was a story of ultimate betrayal. It was a reminder of the onetime friendship has failed them. This was a statue of Discord.

 Discord was in a new pose than his previous two poses. The first time it represented his personality and was meant to show how he was vulnerable when caught off guard. His second pose, when Twilight and her friends defeated him the first time, showed how friendship had defeated chaos. This final pose showed the complete opposite. The final pose was utter defeat. He looked slightly hunched over, tired, upset, so many things. One eye looked down a little at pony height while the other was covered by his talon arm as if he couldn’t believe what was happening. Even his tail looked straighter than his usual snake-like form.

A figure began immerging from the darkness. It was easy for the yellow pegasus to enter the gardens. Perhaps Celestia knew Fluttershy would come. The pegasus stopped for a second, as if to collect her thoughts, then finally walked in front of the statue. She looked up at the Discord Statue. A mixture of multiple emotions in her eyes.

“Discord” Fluttershy began. She almost didn’t recognize her own voice because of how tired it sounded. She stared into Discord’s eyes and almost broke down over how betrayed he looked. She began getting angry. Who gave him the right to look so betrayed? HE betrayed HER. She tried not to let her anger show.

“Why did you do it?” Fluttershy managed to say. Of course she got no response from the statue, as she expected, but still made her mad. Just like before he had no answer. He didn’t say anything. He was quiet.

Discord was her friend. Why did he betray her like this? Why did he hurt those ponies? Why did he pretend to enjoy being with her? Why did he laugh about it before but then when they cornered him he got quiet. Fluttershy had so many questions and no answers.

Fluttershy could’ve sworn she heard movement and she looked up hoping he was somehow responding. No. He was still frozen. He was still gone. This made her angrier. The questions made her angry. His pose mad her mad. Everything he did made her mad.

“I thought you were my friend!” Fluttershy yelled. She shocked herself over how unintentionally loud she made herself but she was still angry none the less. The statue didn’t budge. This time it didn’t make her angry but rather sad.

Fluttershy was shaking a little. She couldn’t tell if it was from sadness or anger. She didn’t take the time to fix her mane after the event. Her usually clean pink pane was messy. It was as if she had given up on her hair, or she had given up on Discord. That thought made Fluttershy look away from the statue.

“I thought you were different… I thought you understood me… I thought… I…” Fluttershy tried. She felt some tears go down her cheeks again.

“I loved you…” Fluttershy barely whispered. With more tears going down her cheek and her increasing shaking it was difficult for Fluttershy to even think about Discord. She was sure she would break down soon enough, but she wouldn’t give Discord that satisfaction. Or maybe she just didn’t want Discord to see her cry.

Fluttershy took one last look at the statue, gazing up at it for what may be the last time she will ever see Discord, and ran off. Leaving behind the gardens. Leaving behind Discord.

The garden was quiet again. Not a single lifeform was there that night. No guards. No birds. No Fluttershy. Nothing alive was there that night but the flowers and plants. Not even Discord has stuck around for too long before he escaped.

Unknown by the yellow pegasus, Discord had not heard nor seen much of her little speech before taking off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are prologues supposed to be this short? Don’t worry though, I try to make my chapters between 2k-3k words so they won’t be this short. Curious about what happened and why he was turned back to stone? Well you’ll find out. Eventually. >:)  
> (I uploaded this on another website but decided to upload it here also. Not sure if I can post links here so I wont do it xD)  
> I'm writing this story with the hopes of improvements so I'd appreciate some constructive criticism.  
> Well thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!


	2. Chapter 2

 Life was normal in Ponyville, the ponies would buy what they needed, do their jobs, and occasionally talk to one another. In fact it was too normal. Those who could muster enough will power to try and talk to some other pony find it was very difficult to maintain a conversation. Eventually every pony decided it was best to just go about their business. Why has Ponyville become like this?

 “Hi! How can I help you sir?” Pinkie chimed. The customer, who looked a little too happy to get sweets, placed his order. He looked a little disappointed when Pinkie, almost immediately and quietly, went to the back and came with a sack of cupcakes, exactly what he ordered.

 It has been a week since the Discord incident, a whole week since he was turned back to stone, a whole week since her first failure at making a friend. All of the mane 6 felt the weight of that event and although some took it harder than others, notably Fluttershy, Pinkie was doing her best to move on.

 “How may I help you?” Pinkie sang.

 The cakes were one of the first to notice Pinkie’s odd behavior. It was obvious something was wrong when Pinkie didn’t wake them up with her usual ‘good morning’ song and dance. Although they should be grateful for getting a full rest, it continued thought the week and they began to worry. She wasn’t usually this… quiet.

 “What would you like?” Pinkie asked in a happy tone.

 When the town became quiet, it was Pinkie they turned too for they all relied on her to make them all happy again, she was the ‘party-planner of Ponyville’ after all. Lately the only way to hear anything at all from the pink earth pony was to place an order. In fact most ponies came to Sugarcube corner and placed an order in hopes of getting some sort of conversation from Pinkie. Anything at all would’ve been helpful, even a simple joke, but every time they tried, all they got was:

“Have a nice day!” Pinkie chimed and waved. The customer looked back, a mixture of confusion and disappointment on them, and awkwardly waved back as they exited.

 The day went by quickly and quietly, Pinkie only speaking when she needed to while at the same time sounding as if nothing was wrong. Pinkie realized the time and quietly picked up the left over cupcakes.

“Pinkie” a familiar voice called. Pinkie mentally sighed as she turned around and smiled.

“Hi Ms. Cake!” Pinkie greeted, noticing that Mr. Cake was right next to her. They both looked at the tray of cupcakes she was holding and smiled.

“Eating the leftovers again?” Ms. Cake asked, sounding a bit desperate. Pinkie looked down at the cupcakes. For a moment she actually considered diving into them and swallowing all of them with no troubles.

Instead she just shook her head.

“No, just putting them away” Pinkie replied. Again the cakes knew something was wrong and they gave each other a worried look. Pinkie would always eat the leftovers of the day, she would never just put them away.

“Well… Listen Pinkie. We’re um… Really tired. As you’ve noticed we’ve been getting a lot of customers lately, our backs are killing us.” Mr. Cake lied as he awkwardly rubbed his back.

“We need to go to bed early, would you mind putting Pound and Pumpkin to bed?” Ms. Cake asked. This was all a lie, they formed a plan to get Pinkie into babysitting the twins for a while. She absolutely loved babysitting them and would always have a smile on her face afterwards. Also the twins have been feeling down lately, maybe it was because Pinkie didn’t play with them this week. If this didn’t help her then they didn’t know what would.

“Okie Dokie” Pinkie said. Both of them smiled awkwardly, Mr. Cake sweating a little, before they both nodded and quickly retreated to their room. Pinkie stood there for a few seconds before letting her smile drop.

“Bye” Pinkie whispered as she slowly headed upstairs to the twins’ bedroom.

* * *

***1 week ago***

_Great, I’m back here again. Just another ornament for the birds to rest on. Gah I hate this! I hate all of this! This is just peachy! For chaos sake I was barely given a proper trial._

_Now I need to wait another hundred years for my chaos to regenerate, nothing but staring at Celestia’s poorly kept castle. Would it kill her to put some more statues of me in here? This place is begging to be remodeled._

**_Crack_ **

_Why didn’t I keep arguing instead of just going quiet? Why didn’t I just teleport away before they caught me? Why didn’t I just take their elements again? Gah! They knew my weakness I bet!_

_What do I do now? What can I do now? Maybe try to make another plan once I get out. Celestia and Luna are definitely going to pay for this. Well, Celestia definitely._

_No doubt the elements of harmony will be dead by the time I get out, so they shouldn’t be any trouble. Also they won’t get hurt. Wait. Why do I care?_

**_Creak. Crack._ **

_I bet Rainbow is enjoying herself knowing I’m back here. Heck maybe Applejack was just pretending to give me a chance just so she could rub it in my face later. I bet none of them were truly my friend. Not even Pinkie. Only Fluttershy_

**_Crrrrrrrack._ **

_Maybe Fluttershy truly didn’t want to imprison me again. My dear Fluttershy would never harm me unless it was for the greater good. I’m sure she’ll prove my innocence somehow._

_Oh. Who am I kidding?_

_They imprisoned me in the first place. My so called ‘friends’ turned their backs on me. It serves me right for trusting anything harmonic. I guess I won’t have to decide since they won’t be around when I- Wait, what is that sound?_

**_Creak. CRACK!_ **

* * *

***Modern day***

The second Pinkie walked in that door, the twins dropped the blocks they were stacking and squealed in delight to seeing the pink pony. Pinkie couldn’t help but smile at this, she genuinely smiled for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

“Missed me?” Pinkie joked, but it sounded more forced than happy. Pumpkin flapped his wings as fast as he could to get to Pinkie before his sister, who was trying to levitate herself to Pinkie, could. It turned into a small race before they ended up being swooped into Pinkie’s arms as she hugged them.

“I missed you too” Pinkie laughed as they nuzzled into her. Sure she saw them on a daily bases, but she practically avoided all social contact, with the acception of work, which included the twins so she would pass by them and give them a smile, but they always looked upset when she left. Not tonight, she wasn’t going to fail them this time.

“Don’t worry, I won’t fail you two” Pinkie sighed as she nuzzled them, doing her best to keep the tears at bay.

* * *

***1 week ago* (Again)**

Before Discord could figure out what was happening, the stone walls around him began to crack all around him and it all came tumbling down. Discord barely caught himself by flashing a bed where he was falling.

 “It’s about time, I’m glad you realized that-“ Discord began before realizing he wasn’t freed but rather the spell wore off. In the back of his mind he was hoping they freed him and would shower him in apologize but no. As far as he knew, they still wanted him to be a statue.

 For a few seconds Discord just began looking around him. Quietly looking for anypony to cheer for him being freed. He was hoping Fluttershy was there to be happy for him. No. He was alone.

 “ _Who cares about them? I’m free!_ ” Discord thought to himself as he stretched his arms, it wasn’t as stiff this time as before but he needed to be sure everything still worked. He laid back on his bed, he thought he’d not feel a thing for years but here he was, less than a day after being turned to stone, and he was already out.

 Discord sat up at this. Why was he free? Last time he knew it would’ve taken him a century to break out if Celestia had not chosen to try and reform him, what happened? Was it because they were so hesitant on turning him to stone? No, Discord knew that wasn’t the case. If hesitance weakened the elements then he knew that Princess Celestia and Luna wouldn’t have kept him imprisoned for so long the first time.

“ _If anything they were more than happy to turn be back to stone, I mean they didn’t hesitate a second to accuse me. It was only a matter of time before they betrayed me._ ” Discord bitterly thought as he laid back down. Then he snickered a bit.

“Maybe the elements of harmony judged me better than my ‘friends’ did” Discord joked quietly to himself.

Discord tensed up when heard the sound of nearby leafs being crushed, he felt so dumb for just hanging around there when he should’ve been escaping. He quickly turned himself invisible and went to the nearest tree for cover. He almost relaxed, until he remembered the bed he left and the fact that they would notice his statue missing. Discord, feeling even dumber, snapped his fingers and the bed vanished while a stone replica of his former imprisoned self took the spot of his missing statue.

“ _Did I look like that_?” Discord asked himself but decided it wasn’t important.

Now that everything was gone, he could sneak away without any suspicion for at least a month, there is no way they’d know he broke free so quickly. Discord almost began flying away but was halted when he noticed a familiar face. It was Fluttershy.

“ _Why is she here?_ ” Discord thought, not sure if happy or angry at seeing her. Is she here to free him? Did they realize their mistake? Did she come to apologize? Could he go back to being her friend?

“Why did you do it?” Fluttershy asked. Discord felt the last glimpse of his hope shatter on those words. Of course he was way over his mind. Of course Fluttershy, his closest and possibly only friend, still didn’t believe him. What else should he have expected?

Discord almost loudly sighed before stopping himself. He quietly began flapping his bat and bird wings and he quietly ascended into the air. He began turning around when he almost lost his balance when he heart Fluttershy shout.

“I thought you were my friend!” Discord heard her say. It felt like being pounded in the chest. Discord knew what that meant: they weren’t friends anymore.

He felt the same pain he felt when Fluttershy threatened to not be his friend, except this felt much worse. He grinded his teeth, covered his ears, closed his eyes, and flew away as fast as he could.

 He didn’t care if where he was heading anymore. He just didn’t care. He didn’t care if they would find out later. He didn’t care he was spotted. He didn’t care for her. He didn’t care about anything. As far as he knew, she wasn’t a friend he wanted.

 Discord stopped flying when he felt his thoughts sink in. _She wasn’t a friend he wanted_. He knew he was lying to himself. She was everything he wanted. She was kind, passionate, caring, and she actually cared for him. He felt like he belonged. Not even Luna accomplished that.

 He turned around to take one more glimpse at the Canterlot Castle. He flew pretty fast so he was much farther than he expected. He was glad he couldn’t see the Canterlot Gardens anymore. The situation finally began to sink it. He was alone, he had nowhere to go, and he had no purpose.

 It felt like old times. No one cared for him. No one to talk to. No one to relate to. Alone. Stone. Discord turned back and flew more slowly this time. He wasn’t sure where he was headed, but then again he wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

 Discord didn’t notice a figure below him. He didn’t notice how the figure smiled deviously at this. As if, to the unknown figure, this was all according to plan. Or the start of their plan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twilight goes to visit Fluttershy. Seems simple enough...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still trying to figure out the whole 'Archive of Our Own' format. I think I'm getting the hang of it! :D

The sun was rising and a new day dawned on Ponyville, everyone was just waking up and preparing for another dull day. Well, except for Twilight and Spike, they woke up a few hours ahead of schedule.

“Spike watch the library for me” Twilight said again as she combed her hair in front of the mirror, making sure she didn’t look as stressed as she felt.

“C’mon Twilight… Just let me… Sleep in for… once…” Spike replied as he almost fell back asleep. Almost, until Twilight called out again.

“Spike! What did I say?” Twilight asked. Spike groaned loudly and sat up from his bed.

“The early bird gets the worm” Spike recited as he annoyingly kicked the blanket off of him. Twilight turned to him and frowned.

“Spike, what other thing did I say?” Twilight asked, again Spike groaning.

“A messy bed is the start of a messy day” Spike recited again as he picked up the blanket and started to make his bed. Twilight smiled and turned back to the mirror.

“Thank you Spike” Twilight said as she went back to combing her hair.

She realized the significance of that quote, lately things have been feeling a bit off with some of her friends. Applejack has been acting weird, whenever they mention Discord she just smiles awkwardly and agrees with whatever Twilight says. Is she hiding something?

 Pinkie was acting like normal, but she wasn’t as free-spirited as before. Pinkie was acting a little too normal. As if her daily routine has become a burden. In fact, Twilight would even say Pinkie is trying to avoid them. That isn’t true right?

 Then there was Fluttershy…

“Alright done, I’m going to make breakfast” Spike said as he yawned and started heading for downstairs.

“Spike, I said ‘watch the library’ because I was heading out” Twilight reminded. Spike halted and turned to where Twilight is.

“Again?” Spike asked.

“Yes, make sure to dust the books while I’m out” Twilight said, putting the hairbrush down and walking over to Spike.

“Ok. Are you…?” Spike asked. Twilight nodded with a worried look on her face. Spike looked down, suddenly he felt guilty for wanting to sleep in. After all, Fluttershy was going through much more troubles than him.

“Don’t worry Spike, I’m sure everything will work out” Twilight said as she headed downstairs, Spike following close behind. Spike ran ahead of Twilight and politely opened the door for her.

“Thank you my number one assistant, bye” Twilight thanked as she headed out. Spike watched her as she headed out the door.

“Good luck” Spike replied as he slowly closed the door.

Twilight walked through the center of Ponyville where it was quiet and eventless. It was almost creepy how quiet the usually talkative residents of Ponyville were, but after a week of this Twilight had already been used to it.

Twilight hoped this wouldn’t become normal.

She knew the reason for this, Pinkie. Twilight knew that Pinkie could solely change the mood of everyone in Ponyville, she would cheer ponies up if they were depressed and she would calm a pony down if they were angry. Or accidently make it worse.

 Twilight remembered the incident with their Cutie Marks being swapped, without Pinkie the whole town went sour in less than a day, but Pinkie didn’t outright just ignore everyone this time, she was talking and that was enough to keep everyone at least neutral.

It was normal, but it just wasn’t Pinkie Pie normal.

Finally Twilight reached Fluttershy’s home. There were no animals in sight. Twilight carefully approached the door, while making sure not to step on some of the bird seeds on the floor, and knocked. No response, but she expected this.

“Fluttershy, it’s me” Twilight called out. 5 seconds pass by before Twilight hears the sound of hoofs approaching the door, followed by some unlocking sounds, then the door creaks open slightly. Twilight carefully steps inside and closes the door behind her.

“Hey” Fluttershy sighs. This brought a smile on Twilight’s face, last time it took Fluttershy an hour before she finally said something to Twilight. At least this meant she was willing to respond.

“Hey Fluttershy, how are you feeling?” Twilight asked with a worried look on her face.

“…Better” Fluttershy responds.

“You remember what I told you yesterday?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded her head and Twilight smiled a little.

“Alright, just try to forget about him. C’mon I’ll make us some tea and we can just talk alright?” Twilight offered as she headed into the kitchen. As Fluttershy sat and waited for Twilight, her mind began to think of her animals.

For one thing she felt bad for neglecting to feed them and another thing is that she felt bad for getting Applejack to do it for her, even if she did insist on it while Fluttershy was… recovering.

Fluttershy was sure Applejack was having a hard time, most of the birds seemed to be scared of her and didn’t try to eat the seeds she left. Although, Fluttershy kept insisting she would’ve done a worse job. She was just so bad at all of this. She was a failure. Or at least that is what she thought.

The sound of the tea pot whistling and a pair of hoofs ruffling in the kitchen made Fluttershy wipe the tears forming in her eyes and sit up. Soon enough Twilight emerged with two cups of tea. Twilight then sat down next to Fluttershy with a smile and gave her a cup.

“So, you think you’re up for feeding the animals? I know you love that.” Twilight tried. Fluttershy simply shook her head and sipped on her tea.

“What about Angel?” Twilight asked.

“He’s fine” Fluttershy responded. That wasn’t a lie, Angel was doing fine, but he was definitely worried for Fluttershy. In fact he is even eating whatever Applejack gives him just so Fluttershy wouldn’t’ worry about if he eats.

“Good. Where is Angel right now actually?” Twilight asked curiously and looked around the room, as if she expected Angel to be hiding somewhere.

“He is outside with his other bunny friends” Fluttershy said. In truth she wasn’t sure where Angel would go when he wasn’t at home, but she just assumed he was with the other bunnies.

“Twilight, can I tell you a secret?” Fluttershy asked, interrupting whatever Twilight was going to ask next.

“Of course” Twilight said. Fluttershy looked down a bit and hid behind her mane.

“I sort of… Kind of...” Fluttershy kept stuttering, this was much harder to do than she anticipated, even though she was preparing herself to tell Twilight.

“Yes?” Twilight asked.

“…Liked …Discord.” Fluttershy concluded.

“Of course you liked Discord. Applejack and Pinkie liked him too, but-“ Twilight began.

“No, not that kind of… ‘Like’” Fluttershy interrupted, now Twilight was confused.

“Oh?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy continued staring at the floor, should she be telling Twilight this? She needed to get this off her chest somehow, someone needed to now. Fluttershy decided she could only tell Twilight.

“Like um… well... ‘like like’ him” Fluttershy mumbled.

“…Like like?” Twilight asked to clarify. Fluttershy nodded.

“As in… Love?” Twilight asked again, the only response she got was Fluttershy lowering her head slightly and blushing harder.

“Oh.” Twilight replied, unsure what to tell her. This was all very confusing for Twilight, she couldn’t believe there was an actual soul that could love that draconequus, then again it should’ve been obvious to Twilight based on how close Fluttershy and Discord were before…

Twilight wanted to congratulate Fluttershy, she wanted to help her, but this wasn’t a good thing because Discord was turned to statue now and possibly forever. Fluttershy will sadly never have that opportunity.

“Um…” Twilight went, trying to think of how to respond. Should Twilight lie and tell her there was hope Discord will one day really reform? Should Twilight tell her the truth and say it is likely Discord will be imprisoned for another hundred years? What should she tell her?

“It’s ok Twilight” Fluttershy said, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. “I know it was doomed from the start. Discord and I… I’ll be alright. You can… leave, if you want.”

It all dawned on Twilight the moment Fluttershy said that. This hurt Fluttershy the most not because Fluttershy lost a friend, but she lost a lover. Fluttershy must’ve felt so abandoned, like someone she cared for deeply has left her alone. Now Fluttershy feels like everyone else was going to leave her, it pained Twilight to see her friend like this.

Twilight, almost instinctively, reached over and pulled Fluttershy into a hug, surprising the yellow pegasus. 

“Out of the question. I’m not leaving you.” Twilight gently said. Silence enveloped the room. For about 10 seconds neither of them moved an inch but Fluttershy slowly returned the hug and a few stray tears began escaping her eyes.

“I… I…” Fluttershy tried but couldn’t continue, eventually she just silently sobbed into Twlight’s back, which broke Twilight’s heart to see her friend this sad.

Twilight wanted to drag Discord out of that stone and show him what he did, she wanted to blast him to the moon for hurting Fluttershy this much, she couldn’t think of a proper punishment for the draconequus. To Twilight, Discord didn’t deserve another chance.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rainbow Dash decides to hang out with her friend Pinkie Pie. Meanwhile Discord runs into somepony unexpectedly.

The sun was shining down on Rainbow Dash’s face. It looked like a beautiful day outside. Normally on days like these Rainbow Dash would be hanging out with her friends. Instead, she just laid there on her cloud with a bored expression on her face.

She had finished her weather duties a few hours ago. She wished she took more time on finishing it because now she had nothing to do. Again. She does enjoy her naps and personal time alone, but a whole week without her three closest friends was stretching it.

Rainbow wanted to see Pinkie Pie, but she knew what would happen. Pinkie would just make up an excuse for not hanging out and go back to her solitude. Perhaps she could go and have a friendly chat with Fluttershy. No. She was probably still an emotional wreck because of Discord.

 Applejack seemed a bit off. Like she was hiding something. Or worried about something. Come to think of it, so did Scootaloo and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. Rainbow hasn’t seen Scootaloo all week. Where they planning something?

“Ugh. So bored!” Rainbow whined as she turned over to face down on her cloud. She has been really bored for a while now because Ponyville, along with most of her friends, have gone quiet since the Discord incident. As much as Rainbow liked Twilight and Rarity, she didn’t see herself going to pull some pranks or practice stunts with them.

“Discord, I knew you would backstab us, but Fluttershy didn’t” Rainbow sighed. If she could go back in time, she would’ve punched Discord’s face in before turning him into stone again.

Suddenly, something caught the pegasus’ eye. Something familiar. Something pink. Rainbow was surprised to see Pinkie Pie trotting nearby, seemingly lost in her thoughts. Rainbow took this as a sign and, with a big smile on her face, flew down to the pink earth pony.

“Hey Pinkie!” Rainbow called out as she landed behind her. Pinkie looked as if she tensed up at the sound of her voice. Almost immediately afterwards Pinkie turned around to meet her friend.

“Hiya Dashie!” Pinkie replied with a smile. Rainbow frowned at this. She has known Pinkie for a long time and knew when Pinkie was faking a smile. Yet, she decided not to press the issue.

“You don’t work today right? Wanna help me with a new stunt I’m working on?” Rainbow asked with a hopeful smile. Pinkie’s expression didn’t move.

“Sorry Dashie, I gotta-“ Pinkie began. Rainbow wasn’t going to take excuses this time.

“C’mon Pinkie! I really need your help!” Rainbow tried. Pinkie’s smile wavered a bit and she looked a bit upset.

“But-“ Pinkie started.

“Please? I’m practically begging. You know it takes a lot for me to beg.” Rainbow said. Pinkie looked at her friend for a while and then sighed. Pinkie knew she couldn’t get out of this one. Besides, it could be… fun.

“Alright” Pinkie said with a weak smile.

* * *

Discord laid back on the top of the tree as he stared idly at the sky. As if Princess Celestia was mocking him. All Discord has been doing was watching the clouds move, on their own, and occasionally try to sleep. He hasn’t slept in a while, but luckily sleeping wasn’t required for him. But he still enjoyed resting his mind. What he DID need was to spread chaos.

Discord mindlessly summoned a chunk of cotton candy and tossed it into his mouth. He almost gagged at it but forced it down. Too sweet again. For some reason Discord couldn’t seem to make any good candy with his magic anymore. He needed to eat though.

“ _Ugh. I would do anything for one of Fluttershy’s soups right now_.” Discord thought to himself. The memory of his lost friend still brought a shockwave to his heart. The words would keep replaying in his head like a broken record.

_I thought you were my friend!_

Without anything to do, Discord summoned one of the many piles of books that he ‘borrowed’ from Twilight before they turned him to stone. He didn’t feel bad about the books anymore.

He opened a book of ‘Discrete Mathematics Volume 3’ and scanned through some of the pages. He didn’t see why ponies had such difficulty with this. They said it was confusing but he didn’t see what was so confusing, in fact it looked too organized for him. He sighed and tossed the book to the side and picked up another.

**THUMP!**

“ _Oh boy. Another story about me and my ‘reign of evil._ ’” Discord thought bitterly to himself as he examined the cover. It was an admittingly well drawn picture of him at the top with red eyes and his palms was reaching down on a bunch of ponies who were running and screaming. Of course they made him look like the bad guy again.

“Um, Excuse me.” A voice called from below. Discord opened the book, hoping the pony would leave, and pretended to read. Besides, from his spot in the tree, no one would recognize him.

“Excuse me!” The voice called out louder.

Discord sighed as he smacked the book shut and leaned over the edge of the tree to see who the intruder was. It was an earth pony, probably a filly, with a dark blue coat and even darker blue mane. She also has a sack but he couldn’t see what she had in it. Discord couldn’t get a good look at her eyes either, but her mane looked a bit messy like she hasn’t brushed it in months.

The filly was squinting up at him, probably because Discord was laying directly under the sunlight and was blocking her view on him. That would explain why she didn’t immediately run off when she saw him.

“I- Think you dropped this!” The filly yelled up as she held up the book Discord had previously thrown off. An idea came to Discord. He needed to calm down and have fun, and this filly was the perfect target. He maliciously smiled as he slowly hovered down the tree and into the view of the filly. Her eyes grew wide as her view of Discord got clearer.

“Thank you little one” Discord replied in the lowest tone he could. His smile did not falter. The filly continued to stare as Discord slowly grabbed the book she was still holding on to.

Discord was waiting for her to run off. He’d have a good laugh and then erase her memory. No harm done. He needed to relieve some stress anyways and the only way he knew how was with pranks. He hasn’t pranked anyone in a week so this filly was a lucky break for him.

“Wha- What are you?” The filly asked quietly. Discord chuckled as he teleported the book back to his pile. He grew an extra fang and made his pupils disappear in hopes to scare her.

“I’m just a nightmare” Discord said as he began to reach for the filly.

“WOW! COOL!” The filly suddenly exclaimed, making Discord out of shock retract the extra fang and made his pupils come back.

“Huh?” Discord went.

“No! Wait! You’re a draconequus right!?” The filly asked as she took his lion paw and looked over it like it was a toy.

“How did you-“ Discord began.

“So cool! I’ve read all about them even though Mom and Dad told me not to! I never thought I’d see one in pony!” The filly interrupted as she let go of his paw and began looking at his legs.

“Um…” Discord went. Suddenly the filly gasped and brought a hoof to her mouth.

“You’re… Discord?” The filly asked quietly.

“….Yes?” Discord replied. The filly’s expression froze when he responded and made Discord grin. For a second he thought the filly would actually run away in fear, but the huge grin on the filly’s face crushed his hopes.

“So. COOL! The Master of chaos!” The filly sang with a big smile on her face as she jumped behind him like Pinkie Pie. Discord felt her tugging at his tail.

“You’re everything I’ve read about! I knew the Ms. Sourhoof was wrong!” She said as she began lightly stepping on Discord’s tail as if he was made jelly.

“…” Discord had no words. He knew he hasn’t truly pranked somepony in more than a week, as most of his pranks were harmless or for a quick laugh because he didn’t want to upset Fluttershy too much, so he might’ve been out of practice but he has NEVER failed to scare a filly before. What was going on?

“I can’t wait to tell my parents!” The filly suddenly cheered.

 This caught Discord’s attention and snapped his from his daze. He couldn’t let this filly spread the news of his escape just yet. Or not ever. He wasn’t sure yet. Discord pulled is tail to his face and, like a fishing rod, the filly was hanging on it with a big grin on her face. Discord wasted no time in placing a finger on her forehead, putting her under his trance.

“As I was saying. This is just. A. Nightmare.” Discord said again, but in a more annoyed tone than before. He stared deep into the filly’s eyes as his eyes began to swirl in an attempt to hypnotize her. Her eyes soon after began to swirl like his and her smile slowly faded away. Discord sighed loudly and teleported himself onto a new tree but this time made himself invisible.

“So much for a prank.” Discord bitterly thought to himself as he rubbed his forehead. He felt a headache coming along. Now he really wanted one of Fluttershy’s soups.

No. Discord knew the headache wasn’t because of the filly. It was because he hasn’t been spreading chaos. He needed to do something soon. For him, not spreading chaos is the equivalent to not sleeping. There is only so much he can tolerate. Soon the urge would overwhelm him and he might go on another chaos spree just like last time.

Discord didn’t care what prank he did. A joy buzzer. A cold bucket of water. Destroying Celestia’s priceless collection of jewels. ANYTHING.

“Discoooooord!” A familiar voice called out from below. For a second the friendly tone of the voice almost made him think it was Fluttershy but he quickly shook his head. It was the filly again.

Discord leaned over to the edge of the tree to see the filly looking around for him. He wanted to teleport himself away and never see this filly again, but she still knew he was there somehow. Discord teleported himself in front of the filly, making her jump back a little.

“Oh! There you are!” The filly excitingly said as she clapped her hooves a bit. Discord didn’t look the least bit pleased.

“How did you resist my mind-erasing spell?” Discord asked impatiently as if he expected her to know the answer.

“Is that what that was?” The filly asked, looking a bit confused. Discord growled loudly. Now this filly was just mocking him. Discord was going to ask more questions but was cut-off when the filly grabbed his talon hand and began pulling him along.

“What are you doing?” Discord asked.

“I’m taking you to Mom and Dad!” The filly responded.

Discord internally groaned. He couldn’t let this filly take him and show him off to everypony in sight. Also he couldn’t just teleport away and let the filly tell anypony what he saw. Out of all the times for his spell to fail it had to be now. Just his luck. Regardless, Discord knew he only had one option left.

Quietly Discord snapped his paw hand and summoned a hammer. Luckily the filly was distracted with looking ahead, probably lost in thought herself, as she tugged him along. Discord had to be careful of how he swung. He had to swing with just enough force to knock her out without killing or seriously injuring her. Was that possible? Well. It wasn’t his problem.

He began to aim a little as he placed the hammer back for a swinging position. He didn’t want to miss and freak her out. Just before he was going to swing he noticed something. Something odd. Something he didn’t notice before.

“What’s with the sack kid?” Discord asked. He never got a good look at the sack until now. The filly stopped and turned to him confusingly.

“What do you mean?” The filly asked.

“Well do most fillies carry around a pillow and sheet with them?” Discord sarcastically asked. The filly’s confused expression didn’t waver.

“Well no, but how else would I sleep outside?” The filly asked.


End file.
